Introduction

Key findings:

The Hillary Victory Fund raises money for Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties in 38 states.

The Hillary Victory Fund has raised $473 million since its creation last year. Donors include more than a dozen billionaires.

120 donors have each given at least $400,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund. Some have given more than $750,000.

About 56 percent of the money the Hillary Victory Fund raised through mid-October was transferred to beneficiaries including Clinton’s campaign and the DNC.

Hillary Victory Fund spent more than $54 million on online ads that are almost indistinguishable from those paid for by her campaign.

Pay attention to the fine print and you’ll see that some of the online messages touting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are paid for by “Hillary for America,” while others are sponsored by the “Hillary Victory Fund.”

How powerful is this two-word change? It means the difference between ads funded by donors who may legally give Clinton up to $2,700 — or by those who may give hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Joint fundraising committees, often called “victory funds,” are not new in federal politics. Candidates routinely raise money through these collaborative operations that, by design, split the funds they collect among a number of beneficiaries, such as national and state party committees, as well as the candidate’s own campaign.

But instead of just transferring its cash to the signatories of the joint fundraising agreement, the Clinton campaign is also using a significant amount of the money the Hillary Victory Fund collects to finance pro-Clinton advertising.

This is innovative, to say the least. But it’s also worrisome to campaign finance reformers who see it as a way to shift costs onto groups funded by big donors, thereby evading campaign contribution limits.

And in that respect, critics see Clinton’s big-money operation as a way for well-heeled donors to better access and influence the woman who may be the next president of the United States.

Videos produced by the Hillary Victory Fund, and appearing online on websites like YouTube and Twitter, “are basically campaign ads,” Noble said. “This is a problem.”

Democratic operatives, however, argue that Clinton and her party allies should use all available financial weapons to fight Republicans.

Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, told the Center for Public Integrity that online videos help “give people a reason to donate” to the Hillary Victory Fund, which he called “critical to funding the coordinated campaigns that are helping elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Pro-Clinton videos sponsored by Hillary for America, Clinton’s official campaign committee, and the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising group allowed to collect six-figure checks, are almost indistinguishable to casual viewers. Some campaign finance reformers say Clinton is pushing legal boundaries. (YouTube)

The ads

To the average viewer, the online videos sponsored by the Hillary Victory Fund are almost indistinguishable from those sponsored by Hillary for America, the official name of Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, which is legally allowed to accept no more than $2,700 per donor.

The ads have featured testimonials from Americans across the country as well as updates from campaign staffers and excerpts of remarks made by Clinton and her Republican rival, Donald Trump.

One such video features New York resident Mae Wiggins, an African-American woman. She recalls how, in 1963, she was “denied an apartment in the Trump buildings based on the color of my skin.” The Department of Justice eventually sued the Trump organization, which settled the lawsuit without admitting guilt.

The video, which runs more than three minutes, also feature interviews with Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, and civil rights activist Eleanor Holmes Norton, now the District of Columbia’s delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the video, Wiggins, who struggles to hold back tears, goes on to say that Trump is “not worthy of becoming president of this country.”

Another features Monique Corzilius Luiz, who, as a 3-year-old in 1964, starred in President Lyndon Johnson’s infamous “Daisy” political ad. She expresses dismay at what she considers Trump’s cavalier attitude toward nuclear proliferation, and she encourages viewers to vote for Clinton.

Yet another video features Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon pushing back against the recent news that the FBI had discovered new e-mails that appear “to be pertinent” to its earlier investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified emails on a private server during her tenure as secretary of state.

One thing all of the Hillary Victory Fund videos have in common? The final seconds of the ads show a fundraising message, asking viewers to text the campaign to make a donation to the Hillary Victory Fund.

This is important, campaign finance experts say, because joint fundraising committees are allowed to use the money they collect to pay for their own fundraising costs.

“Under a strict reading of the law, candidate campaign ads should, and must, be paid for with money raised under the low candidate contribution limit,” said Ryan. “A joint fundraising committee is a way for the Clinton campaign to offload campaign costs onto others.”

“A joint fundraising committee is a way for the Clinton campaign to offload campaign costs onto others.”

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause

Money in

Campaign finance records show that the Hillary Victory Fund raised more than $473 million from its inception on Sept. 10, 2015, through Oct. 19, 2016, the date covered by its most recent report.

By contrast, President Barack Obama’s 2012 victory fund raised about $456 million, and his joint fundraising operation in 2008 pulled in about $198 million.

One reason Clinton has been able to collect so much cash: Donors are able to give larger sums than they were in either 2012 or 2008.

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In 2014, in a case known as McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the aggregate campaign contribution limit that had prohibited individuals from giving more than about $123,000 combined to all federal candidates, parties and political action committees during a two-year election cycle.

The ruling freed individuals to donate the legal maximum to as many candidates, parties or PACs as they desired.

Therefore, individual donors may contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars directly to the Hillary Victory Fund, which raises money for Clinton’s presidential campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee and state parties in 38 states. A handful have even given the Hillary Victory Fund more than $750,000, according to campaign finance records.

When the McCutcheon decision came down, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook reacted, in part, by saying, “Gotta have the state parties in the joint — so much money on the table,” according to hacked e-mail records that have been released by WikiLeaks.

Top donors to the Hillary Victory Fund

Donor name

Location

Total given

Avie Glazer

FL

$769,500

Jeffrey Katzenberg

CA

$769,500

Fred Eychaner

IL

$767,243

Barbara Lee

MA

$766,800

Cheryl Saban

CA

$766,800

Haim Saban

CA

$756,800

Mary Quinn Delaney

CA

$753,300

Jay Snyder

NY

$748,800

S. Donald Sussman

NY

$736,800

Philip Munger

NY

$723,400

Susie Tompkins Buell

CA

$722,560

Laure Woods

CA

$714,100

Sean Parker

CA

$714,100

Herbert Sandler

CA

$706,800

J.B. Pritzker

IL

$706,800

Mary Kathryn Pritzker

IL

$706,800

Alexandra Parker

CA

$685,300

Alice Walton

AR

$669,500

Patricia Stryker

CO

$666,800

Jo Ann Kaplan

CA

$625,750

Charles Kaplan

CA

$623,204

Wayne Jordan

CA

$621,000

Imaad Zuberi

CA

$615,100

Jon Stryker

NY

$581,500

Peter Kellner

United Kingdom

$515,752

James Pugh

FL

$513,400

Sonya Campion

WA

$491,100

Thomas Campion

WA

$491,100

Paul Cejas

FL

$483,400

Merle Chambers

CO

$466,800

Puyallup Tribe Of Indians

WA

$463,400

Paul Boskind

NY

$461,800

Alfonso Fanjul

FL

$450,302

Bren Simon

CO

$450,000

Vaughn Vennerberg

TX

$449,501

Alba Tull

CA

$449,500

Thomas Tull

CA

$449,500

William Freeman

TN

$447,322

Eugene Ludwig

DC

$446,800

Gladys Cofrin

FL

$446,800

Arthur Rabin

NY

$444,400

Timothy Gill

CO

$443,400

Maria Kellner

United Kingdom

$437,000

Scott Miller

CO

$425,000

Rishi Shah

IL

$419,400

Calvin Klein

NY

$418,800

Seth Macfarlane

CA

$416,700

Amy Rao

CA

$416,401

Alexander Soros

NY

$416,100

Barry Silverstein

OR

$416,100

Cantey Ergen

CO

$416,100

Cari Tuna

CA

$416,100

Carrie Walton Penner

CA

$416,100

Casey Wasserman

CA

$416,100

Christopher Sacca

CA

$416,100

Constance Milstein

DC

$416,100

Craig Ramsey

CA

$416,100

Craig Silverstein

CA

$416,100

Crystal Sacca

CA

$416,100

Cynthia Secunda

NY

$416,100

David Boies

NY

$416,100

Dominick D’Alleva

NY

$416,100

Dustin Moskovitz

CA

$416,100

Eng Goi

NY

$416,100

George Marcus

CA

$416,100

Henry Howard

FL

$416,100

Irwin Jacobs

CA

$416,100

Jennifer Duda

CA

$416,100

Joan Klein Jacobs

CA

$416,100

Katherine Rudin

NY

$416,100

Margaret Gupta

VA

$416,100

Marieke Rothschild

CA

$416,100

Marilyn Katzenberg

CA

$416,100

Marius Meland

NY

$416,100

Mary Obelnicki

CA

$416,100

Matthew Cohler

CA

$416,100

Matthew Pritzker

IL

$416,100

Patricia Crown

IL

$416,100

Pia Pernil

CA

$416,100

Sam Rawlings Walton

AR

$416,100

Sheila Davis

CA

$416,100

Sheryl Sandberg

CA

$416,100

Stephen Robert

NY

$416,100

Thomas Secunda

NY

$416,100

Trudy Silverstein

OR

$416,100

Vera Wang

NY

$416,100

Elizabeth Simons

CA

$416,100

Anne Earhart

CA

$416,000

Christopher Catrambone

Malta

$416,000

Iris Smith

CA

$416,000

Jaime Frankfurt

NY

$416,000

Barry Lang

CA

$415,050

Janet Lang

CA

$415,050

Shashikant Gupta

VA

$415,000

Elizabeth Craven

NC

$414,909

Ahmad Khawaja

CA

$413,400

Amy Goldman Fowler

NY

$413,400

Joseph Field

PA

$413,400

Kenneth Duda

CA

$413,400

Laurene Powell Jobs

CA

$413,400

Lisa Mennet

WA

$413,400

Morgan Fowler

NY

$413,400

Patricia Kessler

FL

$413,400

Rebecca Pohlad

MN

$413,400

Richard Anderson

TX

$413,400

Robert Pohlad

MN

$413,400

Steven Spielberg

CA

$413,400

Susan Anderson

TX

$413,400

Barry Diller

NY

$413,248

Howard Kessler

FL

$411,100

Lynn Forester De Rothschild

NY

$410,671

Ana Stoliarova

CA

$408,698

James Cameron

CA

$403,400

Marie Field

PA

$403,400

Michael Bills

VA

$403,400

J.J. Abrams

CA

$402,600

Kathleen McGrath

CA

$402,600

Amber Mostyn

TX

$401,000

Richard Richman

CT

$400,133

Michael Gelman

MD

$400,000

Source: Center for Public Integrity analysis of Federal Election Commission data of donations to the Hillary Victory Fund from Sept. 10, 2015, through Oct. 19, 2016.

Money out

About $1 of every $4 the Hillary Victory Fund has raised — about $120 million — has been spent on its own “operating expenditures.”

That includes more than $54 million for what’s described in campaign finance reports as “online advertising.”

At the same time, the Hillary Victory Fund has transferred the majority of the money it’s raised to its designated beneficiaries — more than $266 million, or about 56 percent of its receipts through Oct. 19.

That includes about $139 million transferred to the Clinton campaign and about $55 million transferred directly to the DNC.

Tens of millions of dollars have also been transferred to state Democratic parties, though a sizeable portion of those funds were transferred back to the DNC by the state parties — an arrangement campaign finance watchdogs have said falls into a “gray area” of the law.

Why it matters

If Clinton wins, the people who made the largest contributions to the Hillary Victory Fund are likely to enjoy special access and other perks from a President Hillary Clinton.

And regardless of whether she wins or loses on Election Day, Clinton’s joint fundraising operation will have a legacy of redefining the roles of such groups in presidential elections.

Matthew Sanderson, a Republican lawyer at the Washington, D.C., firm Caplin & Drysdale, predicted that there will be “more and more advertisements” structured in a fashion similar to how the Hillary Victory Fund designed its barrage of online videos this year.

He said candidates have a “a natural inclination” to find ways to spend funds directly out of a joint fundraising operation, especially as they have “ballooned in size.”

Ryan, of Common Cause, agreed.

“My prediction is that these joint fundraising committees will become bigger and more sophisticated,” he said.